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I’m back from vacations and as promised I will write about my experience in the Bang & Olufsen Innovation Camp.

The Summer School happened between 29 June and 17 July in Struer (Denmark) and it was my first ERASMUS experience and I love it!

Denmark is a nice country, it has weather similar to Portugal, the food is almost the same (they eat to much boiled potatoes) but the thing me and my friends missed the most was the espresso coffee. The price of living is expensive compared to Portugal, but we were lucky because housing, food and some of the travel expenses were supported by the program. The most strange thing in Denmark is the hours of darkness, in the Summer the night starts at 23h30m and ends at 5h and even in the night is not really dark but the worst thing is in the Winter, the day starts at 9h and ends at 17h, it most be tough. :/

It was amazing to work at Bang & Olufsen and know more about one of best companies in audio and visual products. They prime for innovation, design and excellence. It was impressive to see their quality standards, the product has to be perfect, it can’t even have a tiny scratch

We were integrated in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams; my team was composed with a Polish, two Czechs, a Danish girl and a Portuguese (me). Each group were ask to develop innovative concepts, justify them and prototype them the best we can, it was a though challenge not just because of the demanding task but also because of the different cultures and backgrounds.

I can’t say that it was easy, happiness and frustration are a part of the creative process, but in the end we did and amazing job! As a personal note, I achieved my goals, I helped the team as much as I could, I proved that I can work successfully in a completely new environment, my English is good enough to understand and be understood by everyone and my knowledge of Systems Engineering and my social skills helped me being the Project Leader of my team. I knew it, but know I’m sure, if we work hard we can achieve anything we want anywhere in the world!

In the way back we stop in London for a 24hours adventure with 5 portuguese and 2 english guys, it was really good to see London one more time, I love the city but I can’t say the same thing about their weather… if London had sunny beaches I moved there right now

I could written a lot more about the three spectacular weeks but this post is getting huge, so one last piece of advice, if you ever get the chance to be part of something like don’t look back and go for it!